A can for your thoughts
by KeyWood
Summary: After they other people left another person apporaches Rin and asks a questions Rin hasnt been ever asked before in her life. Rated M for violence


Against Rin's better judgement, she decides to go for a jog late mid-day, its certainly a bad idea, as the chances of her being noticed is high, her reputation is well known, regardless she still does it, changing into sportswear clothing, she slips on running shoes and leaves home. She jogs for a long period of time, and stops when she reaches a park and she realizes she didn't do any stretches before starting. Better late than never she starts them, she closes her eyes as she does them and doesn't notice people around her noticing who she is a coming closer. When Rin opens her eyes she is semi-surrounded by 7 males her age, one of them speaks up "Well, if it isn't Rin, whatcha doing here? Having another fight with somebody?" its said in a mocking tone but Rin doesn't rise to the provoke, she gives a neutral response.

"nah just going out for a jog get the body moving"

"oh really? I think I got a better idea for moving your body if you wanna do that" he says with a smirk, some snickers are heard from the other 6."

Rin keeps calm, though she is a little irritated, she keeps her tone neutral.

"I decline."

"oh really? Your loss we could have shown you a good time." The guy shrugs

"Well since we're not doing that let's do something your more familiar with" and that's all he says and he rushes toward Rin and throws a punch. Its easily sidestepped and Rin returns with a hook to the face the guy's head turns from the hit, he backs away a little and stops. He looks over to the other 6 watching he nods his head at them and points at Rin. "Get her"

The six of them run to surround Rin, she unexpectedly rushes at one of them before they can completely surround her and grabs one of the guys by the arm and swings it behind his back, kicks the calf and sweeps him to the floor with her on top of him. The moment they go down she shoots back up to avoid being caught on the floor and she runs again, running toward a different guy, before she reaches her target she get tackled to the ground by one guy and she hits the ground hard, she then pushes the person who tackled her off of her and stands up, grabs the person leg who tackled her before he could get up, and twisted her body as if swinging a bat to lift him off the ground and spun him once before throwing him on top of the first guy still on the floor. Right after she ducks to dodge a punch thrown at her, gets kicked on the arm, gets pushed forward, and then receives a punch to the face, then falling to the floor getting a scrapes on her arm and legs, she gets up and turns around to see 3 people in front of her. Behind her was the last 2 people.

Rin looks to the 2 unconscious bodies to see if they would wake up unexpectedly, the two guys behind her thought she was not paying attention to them and slowly walked up to her, when they got close enough they swung thinking it would work. Rin who already knew about the two behind her ducked dodging it easily, she jumped backwards through the empty space between the two guys and she gave a quick punch too both of their heads knocking them out immediately. The three that were watching gasped at how fast the two were defeated. Rin noticed this and took advantage of the situation.

"You should leave with your friends or you'll end up like that" a threat she didn't really want to say

The three guys scared because they thought they had a number advantage listened and grabbed their unconscious friends and left the area.

Rin stood there by herself for a moment and went over to a water fountain to clean up her scrapes or try to, when she finished it looked like red bruises there were noticeable cause of her shorts and shirt she was wearing. Due to how it seemed nobody was around anymore the sound of walking coming closer could be heard, Rin looked and saw someone else approaching her, she kept her guard up to see if it was another person to attack her, something she noticed was that, it was a girl, who looked about the same age as her and she saw her clothing being displayed at clothing store at a mall, even more noticeable was her bright red hair, and lastly something in her hand. Rin then cautiously stood in place ready to defend herself. The girl in question stopped 10 steps or so in front of her and stared at Rin, nodding to herself as if confirming something as she looked up to down scanning Rin and all of her injuries. Then she brought up the thing in her hand up slightly to be seen by Rin and spoke up.

"A can for your thoughts?" Rin puzzled by this wasn't sure if she heard right, she looked at what the girl was holding and indeed it was a can, what bothered her though was-

"That's curry." While it is true vending machines have curry in a can, never has she seen anybody actually drink, or was it eat? It. The red haired girl looked at the can of curry in question moving her eyes between Rin and the can a couple of times then spoke again

" Then let's go over to the vending machine and I'll get you a drink of your choice."

"Why would you?" Rin's eyes locked with the girl to see her intentions. With an indifferent look in her eyes and face she repeated what she first said

"A can for your thoughts". The she turned around and started walking away, 10 steps or so later she turned her head to see if Rin was following her. Still not really understanding what just happened Rin decided to follow this girl. A thought in her mind was that she was being led to a trap, but it seemed unlikely as she actually did remember there was a vending machine in the direction she was walking and the girl in question didn't seem like any of the other people that led her into traps, however she still looked around to see if she was going to be jumped at any moment. After some time passed they indeed reached a vending machine, nearby there were benches and farther away there was restrooms, there was also nobody around so Rin was not being led into a trap.

"So what do you want to drink?" The girl spoke up, Rin looked to the girl and saw her standing in front of the machine. "Coffee"…."Hot"

The girl then reached into her pocket pulled out a moderate sized pouch took out some coins and inserted them into the machine, she then clicked a button and a few seconds later a thunk could be heard along with the can. However the girl did not reach for the can and instead decided to sit down on a nearby bench. She then grabbed the can of curry which she put down on the bench when Rin wasn't looking and opened it. She then proceeded to drink it as if it was Tomato juice. After two gulps she looked to Rin who was standing there confused she then spoke up

"I paid for the can, I don't have to get it for you" Rin couldn't really argue with that so she went and reached down to get the still hot can and then went to sit down on the bench next to the girl. She found that it was weird how this girl acted but she couldn't really find it rude. She was a little suspicious why she had bothered to speak with her, curious maybe? It was weird how she showed up out of nowhere, It was weirder how she was drinking curry. She was brought out of her thoughts as a dull clink could be heard and she saw the now empty can of curry in between the space there were sitting. Her eyes looked up to see focused eyes staring at her as if she was waiting for something. The redhead darted her eyes back a forth between the can and Rin for a moment and decided to speak

"Maki…2nd year highschool" she said to start some type of conversation. "Rin" 2nd year highschool also" responded slowly. Silence and staring continued and nothing was being said, Rin averted her eyes and looked at the can, then she opened it and took a sip, bitter was her first thought and it showed on her face, Maki didn't say anything about it thought and slightly looked away, Rin decided to then chug all of it waking up her exhausted body for a little. She then put the can down next to the can of curry and went back to look at Maki, who had the same expectant face as earlier, Rin getting the message thought for a moment, she found herself talking about: "When I was in middle school, I was walking home as usual when I noticed people from my school smoking" She closed her eyes and begun to recall back to when everything started,

"Of course as a first year in middle school seeing it surprised me but I wanted to have nothing to do with it so I quickly tried to escape hoping I wouldn't be seen, however on the ground a wine bottle was on the ground and I kicked it trying to leave quickly and they heard it and spotted me, shortly after I was dragged into an alleyway and two guys grabbed my arms and one guy was in front of me, I tried to tell them I wouldn't say anything but they didn't believe me."

Rin paused opened her eyes and looked to see Maki staring at her full focus, after a brief silence she nodded her head for her to continue. "They then said "as insurance we will make sure you don't and the guy then punched me in the stomach and kicked me in the chest, however when he was going to punch me again, I broke free from the grip of the two guys holding me, dodged the attack, and I swiftly punched the guy in the nose followed with a kick to his stomach and he went down fast. I turned to see the other two guys stunned, enough that they grabbed the guy and left."

"What followed after that was being approached again, but this time 5 people, at the time I was a part of the track and field club so I decided to run away this time it worked for a little bit but not forever, I was ambushed by those five with nowhere to run."

"I think at that moment is what decided what I would be doing up until now" Rin averted her eyes from Maki who was still staring at her taking in all information she was speaking. Rin continued recalling all the vivid details of her first of many fights: _Rin decided to put her hands up as if in surrender to see if that would get them to leave her alone, obviously it didn't work and all she heard was laughter which told her what was coming next, She closed her hands into fists and turned slightly ready to fight at any moment, she really didn't want to but it seems like she had no choice, if it wasn't for the situation at hand she would have laughed at herself because she looked like a boxer._

 _One of the guys rushed forward at her, full of confidence and lunged a punch forward, Rin easily saw this and did a sharp side step to avoid it, a moment later she used her speed and punched him in the side, the guy turned not really affected by it and swung again this time it hit Rin on the face, she quickly grabbed the hand and pulled it forward making the guy who didn't expect it lose his balance once again Rin punched him in the side in the same place, a grunt of pain let her know it was working, but she let go of his arm and shoved him sending him to the concrete floor. She turned her head in time to see two guys running at her trying to grab her like last time, Rin jumped back over the body on the ground squatted down and as hard as she could scoop up the person she shoved to the floor and threw it up, but just a little the two guys got distracted and stopped the body from knocking them over and shoved it back onto the ground knocking him out and Rin took this opportunity to look around for the other two people, it was too late as she was punched in the face again and then her back was shoved sending her to the ground, the pain registered now and she laid there for a moment, thinking, becoming enraged by how things ended up like this, she didn't want to fight._

 _When she stood up four guys are in front of her smirking as if they won, however the fifth one, the one Rin tossed was on the floor is what got her attention, they didnt even try to move him, it occurred to her that they wouldn't leave like last time. Rin wiped at her nose and saw blood, probably when she hit the floor she didn't have to time to let it bother her and once again she put her hands up ready to fight. The four of them then surrounded her, one of them called out "show this girl, what happens when she messes with the wrong people" If Rin wasn't more focused at the situation at hand she would be wondering what false information was told to let them believe this. Before Rin knew it she was pushed at sending her stumbling toward another person, what followed was another push sending her into another direction, and again and again, she was going to lose her balance and fall over until suddenly she was given a punch in the face, as if it was third time the charm for a trigger, Rin's rage took over her body and she recklessly punched the first thing she saw which was a fist that was coming at her, another hit somewhere on her body and she lashes out at it also hitting somebody's chest multiple hits at her back and she does a swing, her arms which roughly crash against a head. At this point Rin is numb to the pain and she isn't really thinking and starts to punch whatever is still standing around her, she notices that her she is being punched and kicked everywhere on her body, but she's too angry to consider it, the swinging of Rin's arms stop when she no longer see's anybody standing around her, all of them on floor. She stands there for a certain amount of time her arms are heavy, her breathing is labored, and her feet feel glued to the ground. When she feels like she can move her lower body she notices the first guy that was knocked out get up, Rin speaks up, "Tell everybody here to leave me alone or else" the voice was too rough and if she wasn't so angry it would have been worded better. The person nodded their head not bothering to try to attack her and Rin walks away going home trying to figure out an excuse to give to her parents when they see her._

Rin pauses her story and looks at Maki who is still staring at her, she wonders if she ever blinked, then her eyes do actually close and she stands up. Rin thinks maybe she has heard enough and she's going to leave her, so she looks at Maki's movements. She walks over to the vending machine and puts in money, a button is pressed, a clunk is heard, but she doesn't reach for it, instead putting more money in again and Rin watches her click a button on the machine once more and a noise of two cans hitting each other is heard. Maki then reaches down and pulls both out, she walks back to Rin, stops in front of her.

"Orange Juice or Orange Soda?" she holds up the cans and waits for a response. Rin stares into Maki's eyes and for some reason she is getting the feeling this weird girl is actually interested in Rin continuing her violent backstory, however for what reason would she want to? On a whim? She could actually demand for Maki to tell her but she holds off on that, the cans seem more appealing right now, so slowly she takes the can of soda, noticing the coolness on her hands she holds it for a moment making her previous warmth from the coffee disappear, she opens the can and chugs it fast, it surprises her how thirsty her body is. She shifts her attention to Maki, her eyes are closed drinking the juice but much slower.

A pause. Her eyes open. Eyes are met. Surprise. She didn't expect to being watched. Eyes are averted. She looks back to the can and drinks the rest of it then places the empty can with the rest of them. Maki gets back her composure and her usual focused stare is back, Rin is getting used to it now and doesn't have to look away, so they are facing each other, and Rin continues her thoughts: _It was only a short time that passed since her first or technically second fight happened and today she felt like her pain from injuries didn't hinder her, she noticed the news spread throughout the school stories of her fight, she didn't get in trouble from the teachers cause students never told them, whether it was fear or because it was a shock, Rin didn't really know, all she wanted was for this to not happen again, unfortunately it was not the case, as people were actually looking to fight with her as they couldn't believe this girl was able to beat up 5 people, first was a group of 2, it was easy for Rin to take care of them cause she caught them off guard cause of her speed, next time however was her first encounter with weapons 3 people one of them with a pocket knife and the other 2 with a metal rod all held out in front of her, if Rin wasn't nervous about the knife in front of her she would have noticed how amateurish they actually looked with those and maybe she would have remembered how wandering around school where teachers don't usually go to where places she should avoid._

 _The guy runs with the knife a thrusts it forward Rin a moment late gets her arm cut, the pain isn't as bad as he fist fight, but the sight of blood causes something in her to trigger her anger she felt from before, Rin kicks the knife out of the persons hand it goes to the ground, she kicks the knife away, and then she stomps her foot at the person who was holding the knife's feet he grunts in pain and stays in place, Rin takes the opportunity to rush uppercut him in the jaw knocking him out, right after he fell the other two rush at the girl at the same time, and swing at her head, Rin blocks with her arms, and the pain is strong, she ignores it and pushes up the two metal rods and jumps forward at them with her arms stretched out, mid-air her hands reach both of their chest before the two have time to swing their weapons again she pushes going down with the two of them, their backs hit the floor and Rin is the first to get up she quickly brings down her foot on one of the guys still on the floor on their wrist to get them to let go of the metal object, a scream of pain is heard and it falls to the floor she picks up the weapon in her hand and backs away for them and holds it out. The guy who didn't get stomped on got up and glared at Rin, pointing the weapon at her, shortly after the other guy who got his weapon taken from him held onto his wrist for a moment, until he reached into his pocket and pulled out a pocket knife similar to other before and gave a glare at Rin also._

 _Now with less of a disadvantage, the anger is their but the nervousness is gone and Rin runs forward again at the two she sees the one with the knife swing and she blocks with her metal rod, another swing of metal is seen and she catches it in her hand, she cries out in pain put pushes the knife out of the way and she strikes down on the guy's head, knocking him out, right after a sharp pain is on her hand and her weapon drops, she turns her head in time to see the guy swinging at her again, this time she is able to dodge and she jumped forward again crashing her knee into the guys stomach, the person is knocked down onto the ground again with Rin's knee on him and the metal weapon clatters to the floor. Rin pushes herself up from the body, and slowly looks around, see's students looking from a distance, when spotted they hurry away._

 _After her first weapon fight, it seemed like people stopped trying to attack her something she was grateful of, but its short lived it was only 1 day after her wound closed when 18 people approached her in the middle of a hallway in school during her lunch break with a bunch or onlookers, Rin considered telling a teacher, but she stopped herself, first off there's no way all of them would attack her in this narrow hallway, and she was right One of the guys, which looked kind of bigger than the others stepped forward and stood in front of Rin, she stood her ground and the guy handed her a envelope, Rin reached out and took the envelope, and the group of people walked away, onlookers went back to their business and Rin looked at the blank white envelope opened it and read what was a letter it simply read "go over to the area near the river after school alone" Rin read it a couple of times and she felt anger bubbling up within her, her anger blinding her from thinking straight, like considering going to a teacher, or maybe even cops, but to her fights that she had to go through always are at a disadvantage, always cause of a misunderstanding, and this left her enraged. She couldn't really focus for the rest of her classes and by the time after school hit she was ready to explode on however many people tried to attack her, she reached the area and the guy who gave the letter stood there along with 17 other people and Rin felt her body tense, she stopped short in front of them by 15 steps or so and said nothing. The guy who gave the letter spoke up "I am known as the strongest in our school, and I have been hearing a lot about you" he pauses "I am here to have a one on one match with you, as I cannot keep my title if you continue to win" Rin feels the anger in her body control what she says next_

 _"I only win because they are weak" some voices are heard from the other guys some of them ready to attack but the bigger guy held up his hand silencing them._

 _"The people here will witness this fight and will not interfere no matter what, and the winner will be decided by who is knocked out cold"_

 _"what if I don't want to fight?" Rin's voices out annoyed by what's happening right now, but she manages to speak what she wants, but she can't seem to have. The bigger guy has a smirk on his face "Not allowed either you fight all of them or you fight me 1 versus 1, and don't think you can run"_

 _Rin's temper is back and she answers with irritation in her voice "1 versus 1 you and me" The bigger guy raises his hand up again and everybody sits down except the two of them, watching from a distance, he then takes a stance at Rin and holds his fists out,_

 _"let's see what you got" and it starts, Rin rushes forward she stops in front of him and punches forward, its blocked with the guys arm and he pushes back sending Rin back a step, she tries again with a hook but its caught in the bigger guys hand, then she's pulled forward she loses balance and before it can be stopped the girl is in the air she only has enough time to see two hands on her arm throwing her before she hits the ground, the drop isn't that high but it still hurts, a groan of pain leaves her mouth, and the guy comments_

 _"It seems like you caught the other people off guard with your speed, not me though, how about you try again, or are you done already?" Rin rises up to provoking of the bigger guy and blindly rushes in again this time she does a kick, once again its blocked and once again the leg is pushed back sending Rin off balance to land on her butt, her_ _opponent talks some more_

 _"I see you do have some strength to prove your rumors true, but it seems it's not good enough how about you admit defeat?" Under normal circumstances Rin would have done just that, she would have even apologized and begged so that she wouldn't be bothered, however, fury was building up in her because deep down she didn't want to fight, she wanted peace and enjoy track and field with running, something she has stopped doing once members stared at her bruises in the changing room, it made her uncomfortable. She didn't want her love of moving her body to be associated with violence because she knew firsthand how bad pain can be, but Rin's current mindset was filled with rage so she bringing herself to remember that she didn't want to fight was not something that crossed her mind, in fact, she felt like thinking less because it helped her not think about pain. So when Rin heard admit defeat, she pushed herself up and raised up one of her hands and pointed at the guy, then she closed her fist and gave him a thumbs down._

 _The bigger guy had another smirk on his face, then it turned serious, and for the first time he ran forward towards Rin at a speed comparable to her own dash and he gave a punch to the stomach Rin felt her knees buckle before she felt the pain in her stomach she didn't have enough time to regain herself when a punch to the face sent her body stumbling head first into the ground the guy backed off a bit to see if she was going to get up again after that. Some of the guys watching the fight saw the outcome to be obvious while others with less maturity gave wolf whistles cause of Rin's position on the ground with her lower body sticking out, Rin who was on the ground trying to muster up strength to get up, heard the whistles being directed at her, then something snapped in herself and she got up fast ready to hit whoever did that, she is blocked by the guy who knocked her down, He punches forward and Rin manages to dodge, then she punches him in the face, it actually hits, but what followed was a blow to her side having her jump back Rin decides to focus on what's in front of her before getting to the other people. She decides to try using her speed to attack him, she does steps to try to get to his side but he retaliates by giving her a push sending her stumbling back, she regains her footing and looks forward and he sees the guy wagging his finger at her and then he raised both hands and waved it toward himself to indicate 'straight forward only, bring it', Rin rises to the challenge and rushes forward intent on just ramming into the guy, he tries to swing at her but he barely misses as Rin ducks fast and still running slams her shoulder to his chest and he takes a step back from the pain it seems to deal to him, Rin doesn't let up and follows up with a punch to the face only for it to be caught by him, her hand being yanked her going forward and a fist hitting her forehead sending her to the ground, she gets up just as fast ignoring the ache on her back and kicks the guy in the stomach the guy flinched after that and the girl gave a uppercut to his chin and the guy's knees grow weak and he falls for the first time to the floor. Rin waits for a response like the other guy did, despite her anger she remembers that he did the same, and just like she did earlier he got up, though a smirk is on his face_

 _"not bad guess you were just a slow starter" he raises his fist up "let's see how long you can last though" Rin does the same for a moment and then lowers one of her hands for a moment, then she extended it forward, every movement is being watched by her opponent, and she points at him once again but this time she waves the finger toward herself copying his earlier actions 'bring it' just like that rising to the provoke she did the guy rushed forward he pulled his fist back and punch, the actions are mimicked and the fists collide with each other, only for a brief moment as Rin feels her arm being swung back, losing the exchange of fists, she barely has enough time to deflect the next punch with her free hand, something warm and wet is on her other hand but she isn't sure what it is and doesn't have enough time to think about it as another punch is coming toward her face, with the other hand she catches it, and feels and see's what the wetness was. Her blood splattered a little bit on her face, thankfully not on her eyes, along with a throbbing pain on her hand she sees her knuckles bruised and bloody, the sight causes her to grip the fist in her hand tighter and to pull it forward, resistance is felt but the guy is pulled a little forward, just enough so Rin can do slap to his face, it made a loud sound and he is caught off guard for a moment cause of the unexpected way to be attacked, enough time for Rin to give a sharp kick to his side, which makes him retaliate by swinging his arm toward her, who backs up in time to avoid it._

" _A slap?" A dry laugh can be heard_

 _"Oh yeah you're actually a girl, I couldn't tell from your swings" it was meant to be a compliment to her strength, obviously Rin took it the wrong way and narrowed her eyes at him, more laughter is done,_

 _"not very talkative are you? Normally girls are better at it" Rin decides to stay silent and she shakes her bruised and bloody hand to try to get the pain out, it didn't really work, and she chose to close it into a fist again ignoring the protests in her fingers and arm. Realizing the guy won't get a response from the girl, he took a step back and raised his fists up again, and observed the girl do the same, also he noticed one of her hands were bloody, bruised, and shaking normally this would be a sign of weakness and he focus on that arm to disable her more, however the look on her face was filled with anger and seriousness which told him she would probably still and will use it, so he decided to do something else, he ran and curved slightly aiming to try to get to her side Rin's feet slide towards the same direction so they are facing each other, she digs her feet in the ground holds her hands up into fists to indicate she won't move from that spot the guy stops in front of her and does a hook and Rin staying in place moves her upper body backward and avoided the swing he does another hook and she ducks, her fist goes up to upper cut and the attack is avoided, she does a straight with her bruised hand and it collides with his fists once again, this time a cry of pain escapes her mouth and it gives him enough time to punch her in the face, her head is swung back but her feet stay in place and she retaliates back punching him in the face with her bruised knuckle, it felt sharp, much stronger than before and he feels his face swing sideways a little, he turns his head in time to see another punch, he guards with his arm, and the hit is hard, more than any other hits, he pushes it out of the way but Rin's feet still stay in place, he has little time to see the murderous rage in her eyes to notice her swing her arm back to attack again._

 _he digs his feet in the ground and stands his ground, he hits her ribs and she does the same, though he notices her feet move slightly, and he starts his assault of blows, Rin follows right after staying in place, a hitting of the chest, getting hit on the other side of the ribs, hitting near the arm, getting hit in the stomach, hitting a side of the ribs, getting hit on the chest._

 _If the guy wasn't focused on trying to get the other person to go down he would have been impressed that he was getting matched blow per blow, Rin ever since she dug her shoes into place felt the numbing sensation of not really feeling pain and was running on adrenaline and anger at this point, something that always happened during one of her fights, always anger, always rage, and fury._

 _The guy catches her off guard by punching her on the forehead having her take a step back from the blow, he follows up with a hook to the face which has her take another step back, he does another hook to finish her off, but, he sees her drop her head fast, dodging the swing, at he thought she got knocked out which was a mistake when he saw her take a step forward, with not enough time to guard she does a uppercut to his chin with her bruised hand, his knee's feel weak from this, and this gives Rin enough time to take another step forward and gives a kick to his stomach, his hands then go to cover it, and she follows with strong strike to his temple with her other fist knocking the guy down onto the ground._

 _Rin waits and watches and takes two steps back, she feels dizzy, her breathing is faint, and when she blinks fatigue kicks in hard but she keeps herself standing, after 1 minute passes the guy shows no sign of moving declaring her victory._

"What occurs next is really important and if it wasn't for that I would probably be more injured than right now" Rin breaks out of her story mode to make sure this point is made to Maki, who nods her head.

 _Rin looks at the guy on the ground for a brief movement then looks up, true to his word the people watching have not moved and are still sitting down, some of them however have looks of disbelief others look like they are ready to attack her, Rin in her state of mind, has still not calmed down, so she walks over to the group of people ready to go at them even in her beat-up state, she stops short when somebody stands in front of her, it was a girl with long blue hair and was taller than her, she noticed from her uniform she was a year older than her and was from her school, her eyes looked brown or was it hazel? She has her hand stretched out to indicate what her intentions were_

 _"Stop, you are in no state to even try what you are attempting" Rin irritated that this person showed up out of nowhere telling her what she can't do, recklessly swings at her, this of course is easily sidestepped by the girl and before Rin could react to anything a sharp chop to the back of her neck is done and her ability to stay awake to gone and she falls to the ground. Some of the guys watching stand up in disbelief, and the girl who knocked Rin out speaks_

 _"I will be taking her, maybe you should do the same for him over there" She reaches down and lifts Rin and does piggyback style and walks away with her on her back, the people watching don't have enough time to question what just happened so they take their unconscious leader and leave the area also._

 _When Rin wakes up it's on a bed and she sits up abruptly causing a headache, when the pain is gone she opens her eyes to a room she doesn't recognize she looks around and sees normal stuff a table, laptop, desk, manga, light novel, books and a stuffed animal. She hears the door open and her eyes go to that immediately, and she sees a girl with orange hair similar to hers walk in with 4 cups of what seems to be tea, an assortment of cookies, and manjuu? Her eyes lock with Rin and her eyes widen a little she puts down the food on the table quickly and cups her mouth and calls out_

 _"Shes awake now!" what followed shortly after were two girls walking through the door one who had grey hair and a unique hairstyle and the other the girl who knocked her out, Rin tenses up as if the girl was going to attack her, but she had no intention, all of them sat down around the table with one empty space, they then all looked at her and the girl with grey hair with brown eyes or is it amber? Spoke and said_

 _"have a seat" and she gestures to the empty spot, Rin slowly gets out of bed and when she stands she feels her legs ache, she ignores the pain, and with a little limp she went and sat down._

 _To the right of her is the girl who knocked her out, in front of her was the girl with a similar hair color as her and to the left was the grey haired girl, they didn't say anything and after a pause of her sitting there they reach out and grab the food that was placed, after taking a bit or two they looked at Rin as if telling her to have some, she slowly brings her hand out and grabs a cookie, and it doesn't seem like they are stopping her. She stops after 4 cookies and 1 manjuu and waits for the others to finish chewing._

 _The plate is empty now and the three girls simultaneously grab the teacup and drink, though the cups were put down at different times. The girl with blue hair turned towards Rin and the conversation starts._

 _"I am here to tell you the error of your actions from what I saw from my point of view." Rin's eye twitch from that and she begins also_

 _"Oh yeah? Whats the first thing you saw?" her voice is raised slightly_

 _"I saw a group of individuals sitting down and saw you standing in front of a man who is a head taller than you, I didn't hear the conversation but it looked like a 1 on 1 match."_

 _"That is correct that is what it was" Rin stopped short wondering if she was going to say something else, when she didn't she continued_

 _"I was to fight against him to see who is considered the strongest in the school". The other two girls have a look of surprise on their face when hearing this. The person who knocked out Rin responded_

 _" Is there a reason for this? You wanted the title for strongest?"_

 _"Of course not!, this was against my will, they said don't think about running before the match started, I obviously had no choice!"_

 _"Then what caused for this to happen?"_

 _"Haven't you heard the rumors?"_

 _"I am not fond of believing them until I hear from the actual person" Rin looked at the other two who were silent, the one with orange hair spoke up_

 _"I heard there was a rumor going around that a girl was able to beat up 30 people and was able to win against 10 people with weapons" Rin groaned loudly at that, the blue haired girl took that response to tell her what she needed_

 _"I take it these rumors are false?"_

 _"Yes of course! I did beat up people but it was 5 guys, and it was only 3 people with weapons" Rin then noticed that her hand was bandaged when she held it up to emphasize the numbers. A gasp is heard from the grey haired girl_

 _"that explains the cut on your arm" Rin nods her head._

 _"Yes that does seem more believable when I watched that fight between the two of you" the earlier topic is brought back by the blue haired girl and Rin turns her head toward her to continue the conversation,_

 _"So you watched that entire fight? Did you enjoy it?" she asks sarcastically The other girl didn't catch on and responded honestly_

 _"it somewhat reminded me of a karate match but the rules were ignored"._

 _"And you didn't think about stepping in and helping me?"_

 _"Well the look on your face told me it was a better idea not to interfere, plus I would have to try to get through 17 other people as they would obviously try to stop me" "hah, it seemed like you would have done fine as you knocked me out in one hit"_

 _"you were drastically weakened after that fight, had you been at 100% that wouldn't have worked, besides it would have been suicide to try to fight that group" Rin couldn't argue about that as angry as it made her._

" _Now for the main topic I think your way of fighting is wrong"_

 _"Huh?" this puzzled Rin, she more expected to be told not to fight, not her style of fight. "Well I don't have any training for martial arts"_

 _"That is not what I meant"_

 _"huh?" Rin is now more confused_

 _"It is wrong to be blinded by anger when you fight" the accusation really had Rin desperately try to defend herself_

 _"Well this all started from a misunderstanding, and it continued cause people were upset that they lost to me, I even tried to avoid them until they ambushed me I had no choice!"_

 _"Even so, using that anger to fuel you while to fight is not healthy"_

" _I do it so that the pain doesn't hurt that much!" Rin wasn't sure when she started shouting when she realized it she quickly lowered her voice_

" _It started when I was surrounded by four people they pushed me and I was stumbling, when I least expect it, I get punched in the face after that something in me snapped and before I know it I am swinging my arms and fists until everything around me is on the floor knocked out."_

 _Rin paused and looked at the three girls, the grey haired girl had her mouth covered and had a look of shock, the other two had a serious look intently every word being said._

" _Something similar to that occurred when I got cut with a knife seeing my blood, and again it happened but much stronger feeling during my one on one match with that guy...it doesn't always happen"_

" _I see." The blue haired girl paused and then continued, "Your anger gives you the strength needed, but it becomes a double edged sword, right now your body is in intense pain isn't it?"_

 _Rin didn't try to argue against the accusation_

" _You need to learn how to control yourself, your body will give out if you keep this up"_

" _and how do you suggest that?"_

" _learn when to calm yourself down so you can avoid falling into provocations and traps during your fights, it'll lessen the chances of you getting hurt"_

"… _.If you were there you wouldn't help but get angry also!"_

" _Oh really? I highly doubt it I would never fall for such petty provokes" Rin was quick to show how wrong she was_

" _Then let me give you an example, Let's say you are going on a date with one of these extremely beautiful ladies" Rin gestures to the girls in front of her and to the left or her, who giggle and lightly blush_

" _Wha-" The blue haired girl is caught off guard and blushes heavily_

" _and that day they are wearing a one piece dress that only heightens there already captivating beauty"_

" _is there a point-" the girl tries to argue but is cut off by Rin_

" _however, when you are walking down the street together after you pass by a couple of guys they start giving cat calls to the girl you're with, now what would you do?"_

" _I would not hold back and punish them for being so inappropriate!"_

" _See? That's what I mean!"_

"… _!" realizing what she got into she fell silent, the girl sitting to the left of Rin intervened_

" _its probably ok to get angry about that but the importance is about calmly taking care of the situation"_

 _Hearing that, the girl who fell silent continued from there got back her_ _composure " that's right, its fine to get angry because of the unfairness of your situation, but it's wrong to let it control you when your fights have odds against you"_

 _Rin knows this already, but she couldn't figure out how else to deal with it._

" _So what do you suggest?"_

" _Use your speed."_

" _huh?"_

" _something I noticed when watching your fight was that your speed is rather impressive, it stayed constant throughout your fight with that person, if you use that to your advantage and you can avoid more damage"_

 _Rin after hearing it, repeated it in her head, it made more sense to her, she forgot she was actually quick on her feet, it must have been her rage switch that stopped her from remembering it._

" _Ok got it, I will keep that in mind"_

 _The blue haired girl smiled "Then it seems like I have said what's needed if you'd like I can teach you footwork, it'll help with your future fights"_

" _Hm…" It seems like a good idea maybe she could, her thoughts are cut off by the girl in front of her_

" _Wait a moment, shouldn't she not fight at all? Violence isn't a good thing to have in your daily life"_

" _Ah." Everybody but her said in unison, Rin is first to recover_

" _It's too late for that, there are too many witnesses, who saw the outcome of that, I am known as the strongest in our school right now….the fact I got knocked out after the fight will probably be ignored"_

" _Are you sure you can just pass it on to somebody else?" the grey haired girl suggested_

" _No people wouldn't accept that so easily" the blue haired girl responded_

" _hmm. No choice then, we should help you out then!" the orange haired girl declared_

" _huh? How so?"_

" _When you are in need for some help like hiding from people I can help you with that!" she gestured to the grey haired girl and the blue haired girl "when you need to cover up bruises or need to bandage wounds these two can help you with that!" The other two girls had a look of surprise but quickly nodded their heads in agreement_

" _you would do that for me?"_

" _yeah! We can't directly help you in the fights, it also can't be known we are helping you for our own safety but everything else we can provide support with!"_

" _somehow how you said it makes it less impressive" said the grey haired girl with an awkward laugh_

" _I can help you with keeping a calm state of mind, and training your strength" said the blue haired girl_

 _Rin now given more help feels relief for the first time in the while, she smiles and it's been a while since she has said "Please and thank you!"_

"After that, what happened was being challenged by people from other schools, and whenever it was afterschool, I would give a call to the three of them and one would come and help me, sometimes they would bring food and drink, other times they would cover bruises with cream and make up, other times they bandaged me, to this day they still help out, though after a while I got better at these fights and most damage is minor, however I still go to the same school as them, so if they see me they check up on my body"

Maki then stood up, breaking eye contact and started walking towards the vending machine again, Rin sits there and waits, once again Maki puts more money into the machine and presses a button, this time in her hand she's holding two bottles that are identical, green tea. She wordlessly hands a bottle to Rin and sits down. Rin opens her bottle and begins drinking much slowed than last time, Maki doesn't open her bottle and leaves it on the bench. When Rin is done drinking she wraps up her story

"Time passes and the fights continue, it seems that my reputation attracted that I was unbeatable, it got really ridiculous how bad things got, This one time, when I was faced with 20 people against me, I declared out loud there's no way I was going to win you can tell everybody I back down from this challenge, they ignored what I said and they all rushed at me, obviously I lost and was on the ground knocked out until I was carried home, by one of the girls helping me, after my loss was declared, it was talked about how I defeated half of them before I went down, still earning respect from people. Though, after that happened more rumors occurred how I don't lose one on one fights, so that happened more often, and less the groups of people try to jump me, too this day I lost only once in a one on one match, but that's another story for another time. And so, to this day I am well known among a lot of the guys here in Tokyo that I am the strongest high school girl, that's obviously not true but it's a title given to me supposedly."

Maki who realizes the story is over nod's her head a couple of times before talking.

"Thank you for telling me your thoughts" she bows her head slightly at this point Rin realizes that she was telling Maki her life story, even though she was asked a can for your thoughts, she didn't actually have to talk about her past or anything of the sort embarrassed by this realization she looks away.

"Well I got free drinks so its fine"

Maki's head slowly rises and when they make eye contact, there's an uncertainty in her eyes its quickly gone and it turns back into the old focused look

"To honest with you there is a reason why I approached and started a conversation with you"

Rin's eyes slightly widen in shock with the new information what is her intentions?

"You see,…." Maki trails off not finishing her sentence, she shakes her head a little bit and faces Rin again "The truth is I have heard of you before and I was curious about how your life turned out until now"

"huh?" Rin is confused about this information, then she assumes, she is referring about how she's famous cause of the rumors about her, however Maki clarifiy's

"I was told by your childhood friend, that if I ever hear about you, get all possible information about her, and tell me about it"

"huh?!"

Of all of the reasons of her to be known by Maki this was the most surprising thing ever for this girl she didn't know to have met-

"Hanayo is her name, you had a nickname for her too...kayo-chin?, and you two went to elementary school together until she moved away"

Rin's broken by her thoughts and brings her attention back to Maki

"You have met Kayo-chin!? Where?"

"Well I went with some friends to an idol event and for some reason I got lost trying to find the bus going back home, then Hanayo noticed that and helped me. On the way back we talked a lot and she mentioned that she had a childhood friend named Rin with orange hair, yellow eyes, and very athletic. We exchanged numbers and she told me if you could ever find her, then she corrected herself saying that its unlikely and just try to get some info if you can, like tell me her phone number and learn more about her."

Maki gestured her hands out to Rin and continued speaking

"So when I saw you it matched the description, and I figured why not? Hanayo herself said not too focus so much on the request because there's so many people but since I actually did find you I could return the favor because she helped me."

Maki opens up her bottle of tea and begins chugging it, Rin still processing the story brings up a earlier worry

"What was with that can of curry though?"

"Well meeting you was pure coincidence and I just so happened to have bought it before I saw you"

"I meant, no offense to you but it's weird a can of curry."

"if you say so."

"So is kayo-chin looking for me?"

"Yeah she wants your number so the two of you can catch up"

"Well….I don't have my phone with me right now"

"Are you fine if I tell her what happening to you right now? Or should I just let her know I found you and I am meeting up with you again to get your phone number?"

"Somehow it feels like your asking me out on a date"

"ueeh!? Hey! You know that's not what I meant!"

"haha" Rin laughs and she wonders if she ever done that at all today

"Sorry, if you want to tell her its fine but if you don't I can tell her myself when we meet up, I might need to bring some drinks when I tell the story."

"I see...thats good" There is a smile of Maki's face, she continues

"Alright, now let me take you out for dinner"

"huh!?" now it's Rin who is flustered Maki grins at her for the first time

"only liquid in your body isn't good and your body looks tired enough let's get you a beef bowl, I can also use this as an excuse so we can talk more about your past If I decide to tell Hanayo myself or let you do it, plus we have to talk about when we meet up again so you can bring your phone this time"

"So this is a date?"  
"Well if it was I wished my date didn't look like she came back from a boxing match"

"I've looked worse"

"A waste really that you fight so much, it ruin's your smile"

Rin blushes at the comment, however she focuses on her current excitement, meeting up with Hanayo, when she moved away Rin was more shocked than anything, and the fact that she never got her number made her puzzled when she thought back on it, when they hung out together it always a random encounter and they enjoyed each other's company, so when she had to move away both of them forgot to ask if they'll meet each other again on their last days of that school year being to caught up in playing. Now Rin has a new chance to gain back their old friendship thanks to her new meeting with Maki. And this time she keeps in mind to make sure to get her number along with her childhood friend.

Rin is brought out her thoughts by Maki's voice "Alright were here, next time you can pay"

Rin and Maki walk into the store and enjoy the meal.


End file.
